North American Guild of Beer Writers Opens Submissions for 2025 Awards
The North American Guild of Beer Writers (NAGBW) will hold its 11th annual competition for writers, podcasters, bloggers, authors, and broadcasters. The awards honor the best coverage of beer and the brewing industry across 18 new and restructured categories.
This year’s awards are once again generously sponsored by Athletic Brewing Company, America’s largest dedicated non-alcoholic brewer, NextGlass, the worldwide leader in bev-tech, and Untappd, the world’s largest search, discovery, and ratings platform for drinks enthusiasts.
- Winners in each category receive a cash prize of $500 (first place), $250 (second place), $100 (third place), and $25 (optional honorable mention).
- Each category may include an “Emerging Voice” award for a person who has covered the beer industry for five years or less. They will receive a $25 prize.
This year will also introduce new Best of Show Prizes sponsored by John I. Haas, the world leader in innovative hop products—growing the future of brewing for more than 100 years.
- Writer of the Year ($100)
- Emerging Voice of the Year ($100)
- Winningist Writer of the Year (bragging rights)
- Publisher of the Year (bragging rights)
Through this annual competition, the Guild aims to broaden the conversation about beer and brewing and to celebrate quality journalism.
A full list of rules and category descriptions can be found here.
Deadlines
- The 2025 NAGBW Awards will accept entries from August 1, 2025 through August 31, 2025.
- Entries for the 2025 competition must have been published between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025.
Entry Form
This year there will be one entry form for all 18 categories. Please enter here.
Categories
- Best Academic Writing
This category includes any writing published in an academic setting including journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, conference proceedings, or similar settings.
- Best Beer and Food Writing
This category includes print or online media that places beer in the context of food, including but not limited to recipes and pairings.
- Best Book
This category includes books that must be original, published works about the topic of beer by an author or co-authors.
- Best Blog/Newsletter
The category includes blogs or newsletters that should be active and must feature at least 12 entries per year to qualify. Entrants are encouraged to show a range of writing and coverage to demonstrate their expertise and unique voice. The blog or newsletter will be judged holistically, taking into account all posts during the entry period.
- Best Brewery Profile
This category includes print or online features that profile a single brewery in a story about the business, its people, local history, and any combination of these or more.
- Best Business Writing
This category includes print or online media that focuses on the business and/or economics of the beer industry and its impact.
- Best Commentary or Criticism
This category includes print or online media that may provide a position or opinion with clear style and reasoning on a topic relating to the beer industry (columns and editorials).
- Best Historical Writing
This category includes print or online media that chronicles beer historically through practice, recipe, people and similar historical accounts and stories.
- Best Local Reporting
This category includes print or online media covering significant issues of local concern. Entries are accepted from national publications when a story focuses solely on an issue relevant to a city or state.
- Best Other Beverage Reporting
This category includes any print or online media covering beverages other than beer, including cider, cocktails, hard seltzer, kombucha, mead, spirits, wine, non-alcoholic and other fermented beverages.
- Best Regional, National, or International Reporting
This category includes print or online media covering significant issues of regional, national, or international concern (magazines, online magazines, and newspapers with regional/national/international circulation or readership).
- Best Personal Essay
This category includes any writing that explores the subject of beer through a personal lens outside of other existing categories.
- Best Podcast
This category includes any audio or video series that explores the subject of beer from any angle, including homebrewing, professional brewing, ingredients, scientific research, culture, history, news, commentary, etc. Podcasts will be judged holistically, taking into account all posts during the entry period.
- Best Public Relations or Corporate Communications
This category includes any campaign (e.g., written, visual, video, audio) that is published on behalf of a brewery or beer-adjacent company that may be publicly available as a press release, on a website, or a sponsored publication in another medium.
- Best Review
This category includes print or online media that reviews beer, but does not require a rating. However, entries should make note of sensorial aspects of the beer and should make some judgment of the product’s quality.
- Best Short Form Writing`
This category includes beer writing from any publication, online or print, that contains fewer than 600 words.
- Best Technical Writing
This category includes print or online media that chronicles beer technically through production, business practice, or similar methods.
- Best Travel Writing
This category includes print or online media that transports the reader to a place and provides guidance or insight to the location’s unique features and beer landscape.
Entry info
All writers, podcasters, bloggers, video producers, and others who produce content related to beer are encouraged to enter. An author doesn’t need to regularly cover the beer industry to submit their work.
- New this year, an individual may enter an unlimited number of works or have work entered on their behalf in an unlimited number of categories.
- A single publication may submit no more than five entries per category.
Entry fees
Entry fees are required to submit work. All fees help cover the costs of the annual awards. Fees are prorated for NAGBW members at $20 per entry. Non-members pay $40 per entry. You must be a current paid member of the NAGBW to receive the discount. To join the NAGBW, please allow 24 hours for your application to be processed at nagbw.org.
Additional info
Judging will occur in September and October, with winners announced through a livestream event on Sunday, October 12 at 2pm PST, 5pm EST.. As in past years, the NAGBW awards include different judges overseeing each category, with multiple judges per category. In 2024, over 50 judges oversaw the competition, with more than half coming from the journalism field. Combined they had almost 900 years of experience in this field. Additional judges were professionals in academia, communications/marketing, and the beer industry.
If you have any questions please email Pat Walls, NAGBW Director, at walls.patrick@gmail.com.
ABOUT THE NORTH AMERICAN GUILD OF BEER WRITERS – The Guild has members from USA, Canada, and other countries around the world. Guild membership is open to all writers and content producers who cover beer and brewing, and industry memberships are also available. For more information, visit http://www.nagbw.org.